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adjective
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: adjectivé
English
Etymology
From Middle English adjectif, adjective, from Old French adjectif, from Latin adiectivus, from adiciō + -īvus, from ad- (“to, towards, at”) + iaciō (“throw”). The Latin word adiectivus in turn was a calque of Ancient Greek ἐπιθετικόν (epithetikón, “added”), a derivative of the compound verb ἐπιτίθημι (epitíthēmi), from which also comes epithet.
Pronunciation
Noun
adjective (plural adjectives)
- (grammar) A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent.
- The words “big” and “heavy” are English adjectives.
- 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 8:
- "They'll have to invent new adjectives when I come back. You wait!"
- 2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 September 2019:
- "We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns," he said.
- 2023 April 27, George Ramsay, “Pelé added to Portuguese dictionary as an adjective for ‘out of the ordinary’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 19 December 2024:
- The Brazilian football legend, who passed away in December, has been added to the Portuguese edition of the Michaelis dictionary as an adjective to describe someone or something “out of the ordinary.”
- (obsolete) A dependent; an accessory.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge, since the Conquest, [London]: [[…] Iohn Williams […]], →OCLC:
- it must be an adjective of dain
Synonyms
Hyponyms
- attributive adjective
- cardinal adjective
- demonstrative adjective
- descriptive adjective
- i-adjective
- indefinite adjective
- interrogative adjective
- limiting adjective
- na-adjective
- nominalized adjective
- noun adjunct
- numerical adjective
- ordinal adjective
- participial adjective
- possessional adjective
- possessive adjective
- postpositive adjective
- predicative adjective
- prepositive adjective
- privative adjective
- proper adjective
- quasi-adjective
- relational adjective
- relative adjective
- substantive adjective
Derived terms
- adjectival
- adjective clause
- adjective dye
- adjectivehood
- adjective law
- adjectiveless
- adjectively
- adjective patterns
- adjective phrase
- adjective pronoun
- adjective verb
- adjectivism
- adjectivitis
- adjectivity
- adjectivization
- common adjective
- deadjectival
- nonadjective
- noun adjective
- overadjectived
- phrasal adjective
- predicate adjective
- proadjective
- proper adjective
- unadjectived
- verbal adjective
- い-adjective
- な-adjective
Translations
(grammar) a word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s referent
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Adjective
adjective (not comparable)
- (grammar) Adjectival; pertaining to or functioning as an adjective.
- Synonym: adjectival
- (law) Applying to methods of enforcement and rules of procedure.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter X, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- The whole English law, substantive and adjective.
- Synonym: procedural
- Antonym: substantive
- (chemistry, of a dye) Needing the use of a mordant to be made fast to that which is being dyed.
- Antonym: substantive
- (obsolete, reflected in the chemical sense, but extinct as a general sense) Incapable of independent function.
- 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced in Project Gutenberg)
- In fact, God is of not so much importance in Himself, but as the end towards which man tends. That irreverent person who said that Browning uses “God” as a pigment made an accurate criticism of his theology. In Browning, God is adjective to man.
- Synonyms: dependent, derivative
- Coordinate terms: adjunct, adjunctive, adjutant
- 1899, John Jay Chapman, Emerson and Other Essays, AMS Press (1969) (as reproduced in Project Gutenberg)
Translations
incapable of independent function
adjectival — see adjectival
methods of enforcement and rules of procedure
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Verb
adjective (third-person singular simple present adjectives, present participle adjectiving, simple past and past participle adjectived)
- (transitive) To make an adjective of; to form or convert into an adjective.
- 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2
- Language has as much occasion to adjective the distinct signification of the verb, and to adjective also the mood, as it has to adjective time. It has […] adjectived all three.
- 1832, William Hunter, An Anglo-Saxon grammar, and derivatives, page 46:
- In English, instead of adjectiving our own substantives, we have borrowed, in immense numbers, adjectived signs from other languages […]
- 1805, John Horne Tooke, Epea Pteroenta: or The Diversions of Purley Part 2
- (transitive, chiefly as a participle) To characterize with an adjective; to describe by using an adjective.
Synonyms
Translations
to make an adjective of — see also adjectivize
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See also
- (converting into or using as another part of speech)
- adjectivize/adjectivise, adjective, adjectify
- adverbialize/adverbialise, (rare) adverb, (rare) adverbify, adverbize
- nominalize/nominalise, substantivize/substantivise, noun, (rare) nounify, substantify, (very rare) substantive
- verbalize/verbalise, (colloquial) verb, verbify
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French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.dʒɛk.tiv/
Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)): (file)
Adjective
adjective
Latin
Adjective
adjectīve
Portuguese
Verb
adjective
- inflection of adjectivar:
Romanian
Pronunciation
Noun
adjective
Scots
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
From Latin (nomen) adjectivum.
Noun
adjective (plural adjectives)
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